Mert Erdin
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merterdin.bsky.social
Mert Erdin
@merterdin.bsky.social
Virologist 🦠 | Virus Evolution | One Health 🌍

PhD in virus evolution
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Helsinki
Reposted by Mert Erdin
Nextstrain #ANDV trees updated with a few improvements:
- 2 outbreaks marked
- host scientific/common name added
- province now visible on map
- date colouring added

Here's a quick tour of how to change colours, geography & names!

Links to trees here (scroll down):
nextstrain.org/groups/hodcr...
May 14, 2026 at 11:01 AM
Check out the latest factsheet on hantaviruses. Although it mostly cover European hantaviruses, the factsheet remains a significant resource to understand the nature of these viruses
May 7, 2026 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Mert Erdin
🔬 Day 1 ESCV Turku Workshop 🇫🇮

An inspiring opening to the ESCV workshop on Emerging infections.

A key highlight was Prof. Olli Vapalahti sharing insights on #Hantavirus infections, in the context of recent acute cases reported on a cruise ship.

#EmergingInfections #OneHealth #ClinicalVirology
May 7, 2026 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Mert Erdin
IQ-TREE 3: Phylogenomic Inference Software using Complex Evolutionary Models academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
IQ-TREE 3: Phylogenomic Inference Software using Complex Evolutionary Models
Abstract. IQ-TREE (https://iqtree.github.io/) is a widely used open-source software tool for efficiently inferring phylogenetic trees under maximum likelih
academic.oup.com
May 6, 2026 at 5:00 PM
I am delighted to announce that I will be defending my thesis on May 8.
Title: On the Origin of Rodent-Borne Hantaviruses
Opponent: @eddieholmes.bsky.social
Date: May 8, Friday
Time: 12:00 noon (EET)
The defense will be live-streamed.
For details:
tapahtumat.helsinki.fi/en-FI/page/6...
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University of Helsinki Event calendar
tapahtumat.helsinki.fi
April 29, 2026 at 2:11 PM
A novel member of Hantaviridae in prairie voles, USA; Ortohantavirus sagercreekense as also recently recognized by ICTV. For the discovery and characterization of SACRV : www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@emerginginfections.bsky.social
Discovery and characterization of Sager Creek virus, a new orthohantavirus in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) - npj Viruses
npj Viruses - Discovery and characterization of Sager Creek virus, a new orthohantavirus in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster)
www.nature.com
September 20, 2025 at 7:54 AM
1/3 Two novel member species for genus Orthohantavirus that we detected and characterized with our collaborators from the university of Arkansas: Orthohantavirus ozarkense (Ozark virus; OZAV) and O. sagercreekense (Sager creek virus; SCRV)

www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
Summary of taxonomy changes ratified by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) from the Animal dsRNA and ssRNA(−) Viruses Subcommittee, 2025
RNA viruses are ubiquitous in the environment and are important pathogens of humans, animals and plants. In 2024, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses Animal dsRNA and ssRNA(−) Viruses S...
www.microbiologyresearch.org
July 31, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Mert Erdin
Comparative phylogeography and recombination patterns of SARS CoV-1 and SARS CoV-2 related viruses. Both are derived from recent recombinations in their host bats, and then emerged in human hundreds of miles from their wild reservoirs.

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
The recency and geographical origins of the bat viruses ancestral to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2
Recombination-aware evolutionary analyses of the entire genomes of SARS-CoV-1-like and SARS-CoV-2-like viruses indicate that SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 descend from bat coronaviruses that circulated as...
www.cell.com
May 7, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Mert Erdin
Another zoonotic (alpha) coronavirus. Closely related to the rodent virus AcCoV-JC34 that contains a putative furin cleavage site. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Novel human coronavirus in an infant patient with pneumonia, Republic of Korea
Coronaviruses (CoVs) pose a significant threat to public health, causing a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and outcomes. Beyond precipitating global outbreaks, Human CoVs (HCoVs) are frequ...
www.tandfonline.com
April 2, 2025 at 11:48 PM